Back in November 2006, I was sitting in front of my computer and doing something of high importance.

I didn’t know back then how it would turn out. So, I innocently clicked the “publish” button for the very first time on November 15th 2006 at 10:45 am. This post was more than ordinary, it sucked. On top of that, my English writing skills were horrible too. But there was more to come from The Financial Blogger…

This simple motion created a huge mushroom effect and has resulted in a 1,337 posts blog with 10,143 comments, 982,418 visits and (most importantly) $271,202.34 made online, so far!!! (from March 2008 to October 2011)

But back in 2006, my blog was nothing. Nothing more than some kind of a bet to prove to my friend that I was able to keep up with steady work and was worthy to partner with.

He thought I was no different than the others asking him to partner with him, a proven online mogul.

He asked me to blindly follow him. To open my first site and to start writing. He wanted me to learn the hard way.

What’s the hard way? It’s when you check out your Analytics at the end of the day and you have 4 visits… 3 of them coming from your own computer and 1 coming from a spambot.

The hard way is to write for 6 months before hitting your first day with 100+ visits. Waiting 2 years before making any kind of money. You read that right, I had to write 397 articles before I cashed my first online dollar.

It’s funny how it seems easy now to make $10,000 in a month from my online business right? I guess you read my blog income report thinking that you would be able to do it if you had access to the same network. I guess this is why it is so important to remember how it all started:

With faith and passion and NO INCOME!

That’s all you need (oh… and LOTS of patience!). Today, there is a lot more competition but there are lots of resources as well. I see “young” bloggers succeeding much faster than I did and often stop at one point because they are burned out. Because blogging ain’t that easy and requires a lot of willpower to keep going. But I’m sure you can do it ;-).

Dude, Where’s the iPad Giveaway?

Nope, it wasn’t just a catchy title, I’m definitely giving an iPad to one of you 😉

How can you win? It’s pretty easy:

You must be a newsletter subscriber at the time of the draw (December 1st)

You can sign-up here:

25 Entries for telling me what is your favorite post on TFB. Here are a few suggestions:

Comments

What I like best – For me, it is the sense of authentic I find in each of your posts. I really believe you are happy doing what you are doing and even more impressive you want to help people replicate it.

* like best the transparency of your income reports, and the resulting highlights of the expense reports. It helps provide both sides of the question, and reality for those who want to make money blogging.

* My favorite post is actually the ones about how you talk about the costs of VAs, and how you utilize them in running your business. That takes guts spending tens of thousands a year and reinvesting everything in the sites!

* Been a reader, commenter, and subscriber already for the past couple years. We’ve had some good discussions haven’t we?!

– I like seeing your plan to handle lifestyle inflation. One of my goals for 2012 is to save or donate 50% of my take-home income. If I can live on less in an area with a high cost of living, I’ll be able to save faster! Two goals that will be funded with those savings are my debt-free wedding and my debt-free graduate degree.

what I like best about TFB is that you discuss many of the same issues that are on my mind — how to make money online, run multiple sites, avoid burnout, and strike a balance between putting up ads vs. growing readers

My favorite article, or articles, were the Primerica Saga, because I have been through that myself. We did it as a help to someone who was training with them and then the trainer tried to guilt us into buying their product. When that didn’t work then he tried to get my husband to work with them. LOL.

Happy Anniversary TFB, There are several posts that I really like, but my favorite is “How I run multiples blogs and makes money without burning out” When my blogs grow up I hope to be almost like you..Thanks for sharing all your information.

What I like best about TFB is that every time I visit this site, I learn something new, like running several blogs, making money, tips on saving money, budgeting etc… It’s like getting a degree in personal finance for free… 🙂

My favorite article is “How I run multiples blogs and makes money without burning out” – I find that your ability to do so much without burning out is admirable. I know that if I were to do so much at once, I’d certainly burn out.